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Boston is looking for designers to create a master plan for City Hall and its 200,000-plus-square-foot plaza, both featuring loads of concrete, to make them more appealing. The contract is expected to be worth $500,000.

A teacher-led mathematics task force in a Kentucky school district is recommending improvements to the math curriculum. The 18-member group's motto is "Meaningful Math Matters." The goal is to make math more accessible to students, so "they don't see math as an isolated subject, that they see it for its career benefits and that they see it's in the real world," math interventionist Jennifer Martin said.

In 2006, officials with Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida decided to improve the district's gifted-education program. Changes such as training parents and educators to recognize advanced students across student populations and adoption of gifted programs on all school campuses have helped officials reach their goals. The district has seen a 50% increase in identification since 2003, and more than 10% of the current student population receives such services.

Continually reimagining and looking ahead to how operations might be improved in a "future state" is a hallmark of La-Z-Boy's Dayton, Tenn., plant. As a result, the company has been able to thrive during the economic downturn and in the face of stiff foreign competition.

The much-maligned institution of summer school holds great potential as a boon to student achievement and education reform, according to Ron Fairchild and Jeff Smink of the National Summer Learning Association in Baltimore. Summer school should be re-envisioned as an opportunity to extend learning, offer enrichment and assist struggling students, they write. Doing so could help eliminate the "summer slide" in student learning, advance the closing of the achievement gap and reduce the risk of setbacks for low-income students during summer, Fairchild and Smink argue.